70 years on: Babara incident remembered

PESHAWAR: Around 70 years after several people had been killed in the Babara village of Charsadda, the incident was remembered on Sunday. The Pakhtun Think Tank, with former home secretary Syed Akhtar Ali Shah in the chair, held a meeting to mark the anniversary of the incident on Sunday.

On August 12, 1948, several people were killed when police allegedly opened fire at a violent mob in Babara village of Charsadda.

Khudai Khidmatgars, who were followers of Bacha Khan, had assembled there to lodge a protest against the removal of the majority government of Dr Khan Sahib and imposition of the dictatorial rule of Qayum Khan.

According to the Khudai Khidmatgars, the firing on the assembly was so brutal that it took around 600 lives. This figure and sequence of events are disputed.

The exact number of the dead and injured, though, is disputed to date. The meeting observed five minutes of silence to pay respects to the victims of Babara.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2018.